About

Illustrations for Designers Against Child Slavery's Reclaim exhibition in New York City. Online exhibition: http://dacsunited.com/iii-reclaim

Published:

Designers Against Child Slavery is proud to announce the release of it's third exhibition entitled: Reclaim. Consisting of work centered around the theme of hope and freedom, "Reclaim" was produced by over 40 artists from around the globe over the course of the past 10 months.

Reclaim is based around the story of a girl named Mint. Mint is a former trafficking victim and a current employee of our friends at The Blind Project in their Biographe Lab in Bangkok, Thailand. We've shared Mint's story to provide personal insight into her experiences and hopefully inspire you to share her story with your friends and family. Click here to read Mint's story

According to the story of Mint, this artwork speaks mostly about helping her from bad event. To represent fresh and joyful childhood or happiness, a swing is a choice. Unfortunately, It is ruined as terrible time in her life, but there are many people who want to help her always. The green crystal represents her life. Actually, her life should be shinning like this forever and luckily it is rescued before completely broken.

To convey the time when she was in the brothel, I use a cuckoo clock as a main object. Mint as the bird normally stands at the same point all day and night. When the bird comes out, it seems like she can see freedom, but she always know that a few seconds of happiness will be rapidly disappeared. Finally, she has to get back to the darkness inside--the brothel. Nowadays she is strong enough, flying away from the darkness and never look back again.

Since this work has to be designed for t-shirt, I position the bird around a person's heart which means flying away to your own heart, following your heart.

On-shirt positioning

Designers Against Child Slavery has a collaboration with artists in SlashTHREE collective. The collaborative artworks are in the 19th SlashTHREE's exhibition, called World Exhibition III.

From the final part of her fearful journey, she finally sees the light that she is waiting for. She is walking on a cross way, showing a message in the story about religion of Christ, messages from the Bible to the escape, coverd with dark environment. This place is gradually divouring and taking away her precious memories. Her heart is confined. This is the only way to lead her to the real final escape.